1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mold for manufacturing a housing of a hydraulic unit of an anti-lock brake system for vehicles that allows manufacturing the housing through injection molding of a resin material.
2. Description of the Related Art
An anti-lock brake system mounted in a vehicle is a system that controls braking oil pressure applied to wheel cylinders of wheels of the vehicle such that the braking oil pressure is decreased or increased when the vehicle is braked. The wheel of the vehicle is not fully locked by means of the anti-lock brake system, whereby the vehicle is stopped within the shortest distance possible while the steering performance of the vehicle is maintained. Such an anti-lock brake system further comprises a hydraulic unit that controls braking oil pressure, an electronic control unit that controls the hydraulic unit, and wheel sensors that sense velocities of the respective wheels of the vehicle, in addition to a servomechanism, a master cylinder, and wheel cylinders of a common brake system for vehicles.
The hydraulic unit of the anti-lock brake system decreases, maintains, or increases braking oil pressures applied to the wheels of the vehicle to control the braking force. One example of the hydraulic unit of the anti-lock brake system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,813 wherein the hydraulic unit of the anti-lock brake system comprises a block-type housing having a plurality of flow channels formed therein, a plurality of valves mounted to the housing for opening/closing the flow channels, a pump that pressurizes a fluid, and low-pressure and high-pressure accumulators that accumulate the fluid.
To manufacture the conventional hydraulic unit as described above, a metal material, such as aluminum, is cut to obtain a hexahedral housing, and then the housing is also cut to form a plurality of bores and a plurality of inner flow channels in the housing. In the block-type housing manufactured as described above are mounted a plurality of valves, a pump, and low-pressure and high-pressure accumulators. In this way, the hydraulic unit is manufactured.
In the conventional hydraulic unit of the anti-lock brake system, however, the aluminum housing is manufactured through a cutting step of cutting the housing such that the surface of the housing is flat, another cutting step of forming bores, in which a plurality of components are mounted in the housing, and yet another cutting step of forming inner flow channels in the housing. It is necessary that high-accuracy cutting operations be carried out at the respective cutting steps. As a result, the manufacturing process of the housing is very complicated and troublesome. Furthermore, the manufacturing costs of the housing are very high, since the housing is made of aluminum.